Purification
by MikeHawke
Summary: Gennai listens to his conscience rather than the wisdom of the Sovereign during the second war against Millenniummon, and tells Ryo some critical, need to know information. The results are…spectacular.


Summary: Gennai listens to his conscience rather than the wisdom of the Sovereign during the second war against Millenniummon, and tells Ryo some critical, need to know information. The results are…spectacular.

Gennai paced the room, frowning, deep in thought. Behind him, Mekanorimon slept, leaving the old man to brood.

The Sovereign's instructions had been quite clear: guide Ryo on his quest to take out the Wicked God of Space/Time. Assist the other if necessary, but Ryo was the key to the God's defeat. No amount of physical battery or brute force would stop the monster otherwise.

Simple enough, but…

So many things that he'd seen and heard along the way, even during this tag team adventure, did not add up.

Why was Ryo able to use another child's Digivice? Why was he able to break the mind control Millenniummon had placed on so many of his followers?

Gennai had seen and heard the details of Ryo's past adventure when Millenniummon first appeared. He knew of Ryo's strange ability to somehow "borrow" the power of another child's Digimon and raise it to a level even the true partner could not hope to reach-TK's Angemon had become a Seraphimon while temporarily assisting Ryo on his journey against Millenniummon and his troupe of resurrected villains.

More puzzling was how he was able to do this and sway others to his cause with this same ray of light, paralleling how Millenniummon was able to outright control and manipulate the minds of others and apparently had been doing so for years, if not decades. It was similar to the previous eight Digidestined's ability to purify the anger, hatred or darkness forcibly planted in their hearts by evil fiends like Devimon, but so much stronger…

Millenniummon had claimed to be born from a Machinedramon the other eight children had killed once before. He could not die and kept coming back. He had already spawned Diaboromon and who knew what other horrors the beast was responsible for.

There was only one Machinedramon the other children had destroyed. The Dark Master, slaver and the mass-murderer that had served under Apocalymon…who Millenniummon had apparently gone to the trouble of setting free.

Machinedramon had not died then; he had somehow survived Wargreymon's last assault and respawned in a more powerful form. That made no sense-unless…

Gennai inhaled sharply as he realized that unlike Myotismon, who had clung to life by feeding on other Digimon, Machinedramon had fused with another, dying monster to become what he was.

That power had to come from somewhere.

Millenniummon had once gloated to Ryo about how their powers were the yin and yang to each other. Ryo had mentioned this to Gennai in passing, and at the time the old man had thought nothing of it, considering it simple boasting designed to undermine Ryo's confidence.

Now?

The parallels in their power, the god's apparent indestructibility, how he had died three times now and still came back to bedevil Ryo in particular yet again…and as Gennai thought about it, he realized something else.

Why had Millenniummon not used his full strength against Ryo as he did the other children? He had swatted aside the eight with ease the first time, turned Tai and Agumon to stone the second time, and the Sovereign couldn't even scratch him.

Ryo had somehow managed to defeat him multiple times with his own strange powers and on top of that Mille had somehow not bothered to use his own time stopping powers against Ryo, not to their fullest.

He would have killed Ryo if he had, and clearly he didn't want the boy dead…

Gennai's eyes shot open to the size of dinner plates as the pieces all slid into place. The obsession with Ryo, their powers mirroring each other, the inability to actually kill Ryo when all logic would dictate he should….

Hurriedly he ran outside, hoping there was still time…he had to catch up Ryo before he left the village.

The fate of both worlds depended on it!

_SCENE BREAK_

Ryo was ascending the last stairs inside Millenniummon's latest dungeon, a gigantic wireframe globe.

Unlike the last few times they'd fought, Ryo had not surrounded himself with fighters. He hadn't raised up an army of megas or his own liberated Digimon.

This time, he brought only Veemon with him.

Ken had just fulfilled his part on the other side of the world Millenniummon had split in half. Now it was all up to Ryo.

Ryo, who had been in a state of shock since Gennai had told him the earth-shattering news. Ryo had wanted to reject it, had wanted to shout and scream that he was nothing like that beast, that monster, that _thing that had ruined his life…_

But it all made sense. It all added up-Millenniummon was the only one who even now had never lied to him, had never kept things from him or used him.

The thing had just tried to kill him instead…but had it really?

The more Ryo thought about it the more sense it made. Millenniummon could have clearly just walked back through time and space. stepping on Ryo when he was an infant. Or worse, just prevented the Akiyama parents from meeting…and yet the monster had not.

Why?

As Ryo opened the doors, and the abomination with six arms and many eyes rose up to meet him, Ryo looked into the dragon's main eyes.

The ones that resembled a blend of Machinedramon's and Kimeramon's. The ones that seemed to light up whenever Ryo appeared.

As Millennimmon began to rant about the mysterious power Ryo wielded, Ryo tuned his arch-enemy's baritone voice out, instead turning his attention to the windows.

The monster paused while gesticulating with one of its main arms, blinking in confusion. "Erm…Ryo? What exactly do you think you are doing?"

Ryo kept walking, beginning to speak for the first time. "Well, Millie, I didn't want to believe this at first. I wanted to believe you were just another monster, a thing to be destroyed. Now I find out I can never truly be rid of you…and it's my own fault. Everyone else keeps suffering because of us."

Veemon turned to follow him, his usual kind face turning pale with fear, but Ryo held up a hand. "Trust me, Veemon. I know what I'm doing this time."

Ryo kept walking to the window, and with a scream kicked it open. Millenniummon turned his bulk towards the boy, roaring, _"What are you doing!?"_

Ryo kept peering out of the window, the wind whistling through his hair. This was a risky plan, not even really a plan, just a vague idea based on a guess an old man had told him…but if it worked, then Millenniummon would no longer be a threat.

If it didn't work, then…well, either way, Ryo wouldn't be around.

The young hero turned to face the monster that had ruined his own life and those of so many others, pointing a finger at Millenniummon.

"You once said that my role is only to fight you. That my friends don't actually care about me beyond using me as a weapon to fight you with. You created a monster that almost caused a nuclear war simply to drag me back into this mess. You keep hurting people and killing people just to get to me, because you want me for something."

Ryo took a step back towards the open window, the wind shrieking behind him, his hair waving wildly, his expression fierce with determination and resolve.

"I know what you want, Millenniummon. You want me as your partner. You've chosen me as your partner, and somehow, the power I have inside me is related to the power you've been using to hurt everyone."

Ryo raised his hands, taking another step backwards. Millenniummon raised a clawed hand, his expression growing increasingly frantic as he started to gingerly ease forward. "Ryo, don't do this, please! You don't know what you are doing!"

Ryo's eyes widened. The proud, arrogant tyrant, reduced to saying "please"? That…that did it.

Ryo closed his eyes, and threw himself out of the window.

_SCENE BREAK_

Ryo opened his eyes, the wind whistling around him as he fell through the air, and saw something gigantic smash through the window he just jumped out of.

Millenniummon plummeted, his many arms outstretched, its tongue lolling out of its mouth as it reached for him. Ryo saw the look in the creature's eyes-wild, fearful, frantic, a far cry from the calculating, cold smugness he'd come to associate with the Composition digimon.

As the monster came closer, spurred on by its own powers of flight, its spectral arms spread like wings, Ryo reached into his pocket.

Ryo had the power to purify Digimon on a scale the other children could not achieve. They were able to purify monsters like Leomon corrupted by Devimon or his Black Gears for instance. At one point, Ryo had managed to purify a Megadramon corrupted by Millenniummon's evil power.

Gennai had told him Millenniummon's true origins as a former Dark Master turned time god. How Machinedramon was originally born from a Digi-core infused with dark power, and how any fusion, even one that created Millenniummon, needed a catalyst, a spark. Something to bring them together.

Usually this was a human or simply an external power source. Ryo didn't know for certain which was the case here.

As he raised his Digivice, and pointed it at Millenniummon, he focused the power, feeling the familiar pleasant warmth building under his palm. The device began to glow under his clasped hands.

If this worked, then Millenniummon's darkness would be purified. If it didn't, then his respawn point would be destroyed. Either way, the others would be able to take over from his mistake.

Ryo finally spoke, even as Millenniummon came close enough to grab him and the wind almost drowned out his words.

"I don't know if my Digivice can handle all that evil, but if anyone needs this it's you. Light's out, Millenniummon."

He fired the charged shot, and gave it all the force he could muster. The supercharged energy blast shot forward like a blast from a cannon, rocketing upwards to impact Millenniumon in the chest.

The beast screamed as the blast hit him dead center, burning away at the very core of his powers-

Elsewhere, on the other side of the world, Ken screamed as the Digimental of Desire burned with a white-hot light and vanished, the world around him starting to shift, flowing like water disturbed-

And he found himself standing next to Ryo, who hit the ground with a mild thump and an "Ow". Beside him, an egg tumbled to the floor.

Ryo smirked, reaching out with one hand to pat the egg.

"I win."

 _End._

* * *

This idea has been eating at me for a long time before I could finally put it to text. _  
_

What would have happened if Ryo had known ahead of time that Millenniummon was his partner? If he had known, and had used that knowledge to put his archenemy out of commission before things got horrifying then what would happen next?

That was my thought going into this. The big thing is that Ken isn't infected with a Dark Spore and Ryo's life isn't completely ruined, and the Digidestined don't have to have their characters destroyed to keep a mediocre RPG series going.

Averting all that was my main goal with this, and I might continue it if the fans wish it.

Leave a review with some input, please. I may do more-this functions as self-contained but I'd love to hear what others have to say about it.


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